Biography

Richard joined Durham University as Head of the Department of Psychology in August 2017.

Prior to this he held positions as Professor of Social Psychology at the University of Sheffield, Head of the School of Psychology at the University of Kent, and Associate Dean for Research and Enterprise at the Aston Business School.

Richard’s research covers the full range of topics that comprise social psychology, from stereotyping to social influence, from attitudes to attraction. He has made a particular contribution to intergroup relations research by proposing and developing the “imagined contact hypothesis”, the idea that mental simulation can promote change in social attitudes. More recently he proposed and developed the CPAG (Categorization-Processing-Adaptation-Generalisation) model of cognitive growth through diversity experience. This work has been published in over 150 academic papers, in journals such as American Psychologist, Psychological Bulletin and Science.

As a passionate advocate for translational science, Richard has blogged for the New York based magazine Psychology Today and recently published a popular science book, The Social Brain: How Diversity Made The Modern Mind. Richard is also author of the undergraduate textbook Essential Social Psychology (3rd edition), and Social Psychology: A Very Short Introduction, part of the popular Oxford University Press series designed to introduce new subjects to the widest possible audience.

Richard has written many articles on social and behavioural science for the trade, national and international press (e.g., The Guardian, Scientific American, THES, HR magazine, Vision Dubai, i-D magazine, and The Singapore Times). He regularly gives public lectures, and presentations to both public and private sector organisations, charities and governmental agencies.

Richard is committed to supporting and shaping the future of psychological science and has held roles as ESRC Main Panel GAP member and Deputy Chair of the British Psychological Society Research Board. He is Editor-in-Chief at the Journal of Applied Social Psychology and has just launched a brand new journal, the Journal of Theoretical Social Psychology, specifically designed to stimulate creativity and new thinking in the field. He is currently REF2021 Sub-Panel Member and Inter-disciplinary Advisor for UoA: 4 Psychology, Psychiatry and Neuroscience.

Richard is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences, Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science, and Fellow of the British Psychological Society.